Autumn Leaves and Spring Blossoms

Autumnal mode versus springlike mode — Who wins?

This work originated in 1978 as a crude sketch in the form of a duet for flute and another instrument — initially a tenor bowed psaltery.

The intimate character of this work directed me to set it for chamber ensemble rather than orchestra. In it two little tussles are resolved: a brighter-sounding more springlike mode eventually supplants the melancholic autumnal mode of much of the work, and a seemingly faster 6/8 rhythm eventually supplants the slow rocking of the dotted-crotchet rhythm (in fact the speed of a quaver doesn't change at all, apart from minor expressive variations that might be introduced by the performers).

The opening gently rocking arched theme in dotted crotchet rhythm is repeated with variant ornamentation which includes a premonition of the 6/8 tune that is to emerge later. There follows a serious 'second subject', which soon becomes twined with the first theme, brief incursions of 6/8 rhythm causing occasional quickenings that belie the unchanged quaver length.

This leads to the apparently faster 6/8 tune, still in the melancholy autumnal mode, which descends in waves from above like falling autumn leaves. There follows a repeat from the beginning of the 'second subject'; in the arrangement for chamber ensemble the repeat has some changes of instrumentation and in a few places some additional harmonization.

A jauntier mood follows, the 6/8 rhythm now firmly established, and a tussle ensuing between the melancholy autumnal mode and a brighter, more springlike one. This is in the form of a bimodal development using a new theme, which becomes worked together with the opening theme (now in 6/8). Soon, however, the melancholy seems to have won its little battle, with a return to the opening theme in dotted-crotchet rhythm, though with variant ornamentation.

This leads into the faster 6/8 theme that had followed the 'second subject' development, but instead of the autumnal melancholy the tune is in the more radiant, springlike mode — its descending waves now suggesting not so much falling autumn leaves as falling petals of spring blossoms. Hence the apparently rather flowery title of this work.